Realistic profile picture

Realistic

About Me


Realistic is the guise of sound collage artist James Towning, an electronic musician and graphic designer originally from Ohio, where he also performed in a band called Fact TwentyTwo from 1986-1995.
In 1998 the Realistic album Maidenhead was co-released by Negativland's Seeland Records and Realistic's Black Music label. Towning described it as "seventeen retarded children lined-up and displayed for the whole world to hear. Fifty minutes of dynamic headphones bliss." Following that were a 12" EP, Smells Like Teen Disco, and a full-length album, Private Moments, both on Illegal Art. A remix album titled Toilet Parts was released shortly after Private Moments and is a good example of Realistic's tracks often having several versions and permutations beyond the official release.
Realistic's third album Perpetual Memory Loss was released by Illegal Art on October 23rd, 2007. It features sixteen tracks of intricate sample-based compositions-- a beautifully sophisticated celebration of found sound, recorded media, technology, and electronic composition.
For more information and free mp3s click here .

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 26/12/2004
Band Website: www.blackmailelectronics.com/realistic
Band Members: James
Influences: ELO, FSOL, 4AD, OMD, PWEI, XTC, NASA, THC, RDJ, The KLF, ASCII art, The Art of Noise, Richard H. Kirk, Jack Dangers, Holger Hiller, Kid Koala, Queen, Yes, Wire, Trevor Horn, Stanley Kubrick, Osymyso, The Orb, 1970's pop-music, Severed Heads, Adobe After Effects, Bogdan Raczynski, Warp Records, Mute Records, Planet-Mu, Cock Rock Disco, Ninjatune, Lewis, Elmo, Belly, TheThe, The Beatles (and Wings), Beatkit, Cornelius, Colourbox, Coil, Hayao Miyazaki, Stereolab, Terry Gilliam, Todd Rundgren (and Utopia), candy, digital photography, 1980's synth pop, Ray Harryhausen, sound effects records, beer, vodka, shortwave radio, Ensoniq, Apple Macintosh, NYC (and Brooklyn), Steinberg, Jägermeister, The Carpenters
Record Label: Illegal Art, Seeland, Black Music
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

"V2" and more at Bandcamp.com

There's now a Realistic Bandcamp.com site that features free MP3 downloads of many Realistic releases. Some in high resolution (320 kbps), others as lower resolution (128 kbps) previews. The complete ...
Posted by on Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:01:00 GMT

"Perpetual Memory Loss" pay- what- you- want

Illegal Art's new pay- what- you- want site is now up and running.Included as a bonus with the minimum $5 payment for Realistic's "Perpetual Memory Loss" album is the brand new remix album titled "V2....
Posted by on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:02:00 GMT

Perpetual Memory Loss samples

The press company asked for a list of samples used on the Perpetual Memory Loss album, so below is a track-by-track breakdown. My apologies for the various "unknown" sample credits. I hope you find th...
Posted by on Sun, 02 Dec 2007 14:19:00 GMT

"Perpetual Memory Loss" CD - OUT NOW

The new Realistic album titled Perpetual Memory Loss is now available. It features sixteen tracks of intricate sample-based compositions  a beautifully sophisticated celebration of found sound, recor...
Posted by on Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:50:00 GMT

"Photorealistic EP" FREE DOWNLOAD

Available now for a limited time as a FREE DOWNLOAD is the Realistic Photorealistic EP. This digital only release is a companion piece to the forthcoming Realistic Perpetual Memory Loss album (out Oct...
Posted by on Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:09:00 GMT

New CD, free MP3s, links...

On October 23rd, Illegal Art will release Realistic's third album, Perpetual Memory Loss. It features sixteen tracks of intricate sample-based compositions - a beautifully sophisticated celebration of...
Posted by on Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:01:00 GMT

Realistic radio interview

The weekly radio show and podcast called Some Assembly Required did a "phoner" with Realistic (me) last year. It was broadcast a few weeks ago. I'm hesitent to post this because I think I sound like ...
Posted by on Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:14:00 GMT

Realistic Q&A

In case you missed it, last September, Some Assembly Required posted a Realistic Q&A.Click here to read it.
Posted by on Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:38:00 GMT

Realistic Videos...

Click here to see some Realistic videos on Myspace.
Posted by on Fri, 23 Jun 2006 17:40:00 GMT